


Waiting for You

by alexcat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Hints of Pepper/Tony, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), hints of Steve/Natasha, what if Steve called?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:08:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21969616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Steve missed Tony and Tony missed Steve. What if Steve called first?
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 14
Kudos: 72
Collections: 2019 Captain America/Iron Man Holiday Exchange





	Waiting for You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GotTheSilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GotTheSilver/gifts).



> GotTheSilver - I loved all the prompts! Hope you like this story.

_I have died every day waiting for you._ \- Christina Perri

* 

Even Pepper didn’t know that Tony had the phone on him all the time. He even put it on the table by the bed when he slept, leaving it on when he charged it. He hadn’t known that losing Steve would actually make his chest ache with the emptiness and the hopelessness. If Steve had betrayed him, was there anyone he could trust? Was there anything real and true? Was everything a lie of one kind or another? 

Tony Stark gazed at the phone. Willing it to ring and praying that it didn’t. What would he say to Rogers? 

*

Half a world away, Steve Rogers stared at the little flip phone in his hand. He needed to hear that voice, dammit! He needed to know that Tony was all right, that he’d recovered. He didn’t need to be forgiven. He had already decided that would never happen. He just needed to know that Tony was well and that he was happy again.

He lay down that evening and dreamed of Tony. These dark eyes flashed and he sat straight up in the bed. He felt like he was smothering. He got up and pulled on his pants. He pocketed the key to the little room he shared with Natasha and let himself out. 

He walked the streets for the rest of the night. 

Odd that he was here in Berlin, but the city had become their headquarters and he liked it here. Back in Germany after so many, many years. He walked until the eastern horizon began to lighten with the dawning of another day. 

He found no answers, either in the streets or in his heart. 

*

“Why don’t you call him?” Pepper asked Tony as she tried to get him to pay attention to what he was signing. 

“Can’t do it. He – he betrayed me. How can I forgive that?”

Pepper leaned forward. “But did he really? He didn’t tell you, but would that have made it any better? He didn’t kill them, Tony.” 

“He should have told me. That’s all.” That he’d chosen Barnes over Tony was a thought never voiced by Tony or Pepper. Some things simply could not be said.

“I’m glad that people are more forgiving to you than you are to them.”

Tony looked at her like she’d slapped him. 

“Tony, he’s your friend and if those looks he gives you when you aren’t looking mean anything, he would be more if he could.” 

Tony’s mouth moved as if he were going to speak but no words came out. 

“Don’t just gape at me like that. Are you too dense to see what is plain to everyone else?”

“Doesn’t matter anymore.”

When he went to bed that night, the phone was turned on and on the table as it usually was. 

*

On the third night that Steve dreamed of Tony, Natasha woke when he let himself out and waited for him to return. Even though they were sometimes lovers, she knew where his heart lay. She’d known that from the beginning. He’d looked at Tony when he opened his eyes after falling back to earth the way she wanted someone to look at her someday. 

It was not too long until he let himself in. 

“Call him,” she said in the darkness before he even closed the door. 

“He won’t talk to me.”

“He feels the same as you do.” 

“He hates me for keeping what I knew from him.” 

“It wouldn’t change anything if he’d known. He’s probably brooding, too.”

Steve turned to her. “I hurt him. I hurt him and I beat him to a pulp, Natasha. How will he ever forgive me?”

She sighed. “How will you know unless you talk to him? Call him, Steve. Don’t be stubborn. Call him.”

He shook his head and put his phone on the table beside the bed. 

*

Tony found himself holding the phone in his hand sometimes, willing it to ring. It paid him no mind. Some days he wanted Steve to call. Other days he wanted to beat him senseless and leave him wounded and afraid, just as Steve had him. The days he wanted Steve to call were becoming more frequent. 

*

The phone had become so heavy that Steve seldom held it in his hand. He stuck it in a pocket in his battered suit and left it there most of the time. Except when it was charging. He still kept it charged. 

It didn’t ring. 

One morning, he got up and Natasha was out, gone for coffee, he was certain. He got dressed and unplugged the phone from its little charger and started to put it in his pocket. 

He couldn’t. 

He opened it slowly, brought up saved numbers. There was only one number saved. 

Tony’s.

He called it. It rang and rang, so many times that he was sure it would go to voice mail. Then he heard Tony’s voice. 

“What?” The question wasn’t unkind, just a little abrupt. 

“How are you?” He couldn’t think of anything to say.

“I’m better than when you last saw me. You?” The voice was still clipped. 

“I’m all right.”

“Are those takedowns of Chitauri tech you?” The oddness of the question didn’t rattle him. It was just the way Stark’s mind worked, darting about at a breakneck speed. 

“Yeah. Most of them, anyway.” 

“You in New York?” 

“No. Still a little hot there for me. I’d love to see you, Tony.” There, he’d said it. He was sure that Tony would tell him to go straight to hell.

“I, uh, might need to be in Amsterdam to sign some papers next week,” Tony said after several moments of silence. “I might be staying at the Waldorf. If you left me a message at the desk, I might be able to find you.”

Steve realized his heart was pounding. 

“I might be able to do that,” Steve finally answered, surprised that his voice was as steady as it was. 

“Tuesday. I’ll be there on Tuesday,” Tony said. “Take care, Cap.” 

And he was gone. 

*

Tony’s heart was racing, too. What had he gotten himself into? Did he even want to see Steve? 

Fuck! 

Maybe he could simply not show up. 

Except that he had to show up. He had to know the answers. He needed to know if the feelings that he’d buried after the Battle of New York were real, if he could forgive Steve. He needed answers. Did Rogers feel anything more for him than friendship? He’d never indicated anything more. 

Had he? 

*

“You called him, didn’t you?” Natasha asked him. 

He nodded. 

“And?” 

“Amsterdam. Tuesday. Waldorf Astoria.”

“Wooo!”

“Maybe I won’t go.” 

She shrugged. “Maybe I’ll sharpen my knives on you.” 

He put his hands. “All right. I’ll go, but maybe you should come, too.”

“Steve, I don’t think you need me for what you and Stark will be doing.” 

“It’s not like that,” he protested, though rather weakly. 

“I’ll be nearby if you need me.” 

*

Tony was more nervous than he’d been when he lost his virginity. He was a lot soberer, too. He’d changed clothes twice after he got to the hotel and finally decided on jeans, a t-shirt and a dark jacket. He didn’t have any business meetings until late Wednesday anyway. 

He went down to the desk and asked if there were any messages for him. 

There was one, a note in the same handwriting on the note that came with the phone.

 _Meet me in the park in front of the Rijksmuseum at 5 pm._

It was 4:30 already. He had driver take there. It was late fall and the day was already coming to a close as he walked toward the museum. He was so busy scanning the people in front of him that he never noticed that Steve was walking beside him until Steve spoke. His voice was smooth, with only a bare trace of Brooklyn, the only thing that told Tony how nervous Steve was. 

“Stark, long time.”

Tony stopped and looked at him. “Nice beard, Cap.” He resisted the urge to touch Steve’s full beard. “Long hair, too. They suit you.” 

He watched the smile reluctantly play across Steve’s mouth. 

“You look good, too.”

“I’m here-” Tony got no further. Steve pulled him close, looked into his eyes.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Steve whispered and kissed Tony, a simple touch of lips at first. A first kiss, full of questions, longing. 

After the shock began to wear off, Tony let his arms snake their way around Steve, opened his mouth to Steve’s kiss. 

Steve pulled away for a second, looking down into Tony’s eyes. “You sure about this?”

“Are you?” Tony countered. 

“Never been surer of anything.” 

They kissed again, passion and need creeping into both the embrace and the kiss. Tony pressed himself against Steve. 

“Should we talk?” Steve asked between kisses.

“Yes. No! We can talk after. We need to find a place.”

“I have a room,” Steve said. “Plain but clean. Come with me?” 

Tony thought he might die if it was very far away. 

*

Steve couldn’t believe what was happening. He knew they both might regret it after the fact, but now, he needed – so badly. 

They walked to his motel, stopping to kiss every few feet. Tony gasped when Steve reached between them to caress his burgeoning erection through the fabric of his jeans. Steve captured his mouth in another kiss.

When they broke apart enough to walk a few feet farther, Tony murmured, “I thought you’d be innocent.”

Steve laughed. “Why on earth would you think that?” 

“You’re from another time, another world.”

Steve’s answer was another searing kiss. 

“We’re here.” 

* 

Steve fumbled with the key card until Tony took it from him and slid it into the reader. The green light flashed and he opened the door. “I’ve been opening locked doors like this since I was three,” Tony said with a shrug. 

They stepped into the small room. It had a bed, a desk and a bath. It had a television on the wall and a floor to ceiling curtain that covered the windows. 

Steve pushed Tony onto the bed and fell atop him, kissing him as his hands lifted Tony’s t-shirt. He touched the arc reactor. 

“I thought it was gone.”

Tony bit back a moan as Steve licked his scars and traced the g lowing reactor with his fingertips. “I – uh, had it put back. Pepper had a fit.”

Steve was busy kissing a trail of wet kisses down his belly to the top of his jeans. Tony lifted his hips and slid the jeans down without bothering to unzip them. Steve looked at him and grinned. His boxers had tiny red hearts on them. 

“You’re adorable,” Steve whispered as he removed the cute underwear. He looked down at Tony’s cock and up at his face. “And gorgeous,” he growled as he explored Tony with his mouth and hands. 

“You’re killing me, here, Rogers,” Tony groaned. “I at least wanna see you naked before I pop my cork.”

Steve laughed. “Want me to do it or you?” 

“Please show me your stuff, Captain.” 

Steve stood up beside the bed and unbuttoned his shirt. He still wore checkered shirts, but this one was more lumberjack and less grandpa. It was a dark blue and black flannel. His skin was pale and smooth under the shirt. Tony reached for his belt. “Let me.” 

Steve stood still as Tony unbuckled and unzipped him. Under the dark pants, he wore nothing. Hic cock sprang free. 

“Never would have thought you for a commando guy,” Tony said as he touched hard, velvety flesh. 

“I was a real commando. What did you expect?” There was a little in pride in the statement. 

Steve kicked his pants away and lay back on the bed. They both stopped talking, except for murmurs and moans of pleasure. 

Without conversation, they seemed to easily find what pleased each other. 

* 

Steve was thankful that Natasha had reminded him to buy something to ease things. He opened the drawer and pulled the large tube out. Neither of them spoke as Tony held his hand out for it and poured it into his palm. He rubbed his hand together and then rubbed Steve between his hands. 

Tony lay on his back and motioned Steve put a pillow beneath his butt. 

“Make me ready,” he whispered as he handed the lube to Steve. 

Minutes later, Steve was breathless and Tony was begging. After a bit of moving this way and that to settle into the most comfortable position, Steve Rogers began to move in Tony. He wanted to tell Tony he loved him and had since New York. He wanted to beg forgiveness. He wanted to die here in Tony’s arm. He was that sure there would never be a more perfect moment. 

But there was. 

The world stopped for those few seconds. There was nothing in the entire universe but their two hearts. The waves of blissfulness erased everything for those seconds then they lay still. 

Steve lay his head on Tony. 

At first he was alarmed when Tony wiggled out from under him. 

“You weigh a ton,” Tony said as he reached for Steve to come to his arms as they lay facing one another. 

“I need to apolo-” Tony put two fingers over his mouth.

“No. Not now. We should have done this several years ago. I didn’t know.”

“Natasha told me. I didn’t know either.”

Steve reached for Tony again. 

*

Tony woke up to light coming in around the thick curtains. He wasn’t certain how many times they’d made love. More times than he’d known he could, that was for sure. It took him a moment to realize that Steve was missing. He got up and went to the bathroom, washing his face and brushing his hair before slipping his underwear on and getting back into the bed. 

Before he realized he’d gone back to sleep, Steve opened the door with coffee and pastries in his hands. 

“I was starving,” he explained as he handed Tony a cup. 

They divided the food, eating and drinking in silence until all that was left was the last of their coffee. 

“Maybe we should talk now?” Steve asked. 

Tony looked at the window and back at Steve. “I was angry and jealous of Barnes, that you’d choose him.”

“I didn’t. I just couldn’t let them kill him. And they would have.”

“I know. I – I loved you then and I still do,” Tony told him.

“Same here. I thought I’d die when it was over. When you were gone.”

Tony set his cup on the table and took Steve’s from his hand. “From now on, we’re together. Whatever comes, we’ll face it together.” 

*

Steve opened the curtain and let the sun shine in on them as they made love one more time, before Tony had to go to his meeting and Steve had to return to Germany. 

Steve met Tony when and where he could. Only Pepper and Natasha knew. He, Sam and Natasha kept doing missions all over the world until one morning in 2018 when Bruce Banner called him on Tony’s phone. 

“Cap, they’ve taken him in a ship…”


End file.
